On my Zen Calendar this week, Ram Dass shared this short story.

Imagine two waves, a smaller one and a larger one, traveling across the ocean. Suddenly, the larger one sees land approaching, and gets upset. He cries to the smaller wave, “Oh, no! Up ahead, waves are crashing and disappearing! We’re going to die!” The smaller wave, somehow, is unperturbed. So, the larger wave tries to convince her, to no avail.

Finally, the smaller wave says, “What would you say if I told you that there are six words, that if you really understood and believed them, you would see that there’s no reason to fear?” The bigger wave protests, but as the land approaches, he becomes desperate. He’ll try anything. “Fine, fine, tell me the six words.”

“Okay,” the smaller wave says, “You’re not a wave, you’re water.”

If only we believed.
Paula